Games Londoners play

[divingbrit]

Attention all visitors ... be on your guard for hotels trying to charge higher rates during the
You can book a hotel room now but completing your 2012 Olympics itinerary will require patience, writes John Burfitt.

Australians have always had a thing about the Olympic Games. We have hosted them twice and are one of the few nations to have competed at every summer Games since the modern Olympiad began in 1896.

With Aussie athletes having delivered stunning gold-medal performances in Beijing, Athens and Sydney and with London a perennial top-ranking destination for Australian travellers, it is not surprising there is already interest in visiting London for the 2012 Olympics.

Some keen travellers have jumped the starter's gun and have bookings locked in for July 2012. At the three-star Amsterdam Hotel in London's Earl Court, three quarters of its rooms have been booked.

The general manager, Judy Verrier, says one-third of those confirmed bookings are by Australians, with the rest made by guests from the US and South Africa.

"The first genuine inquiry we had was in February last year and it was an Australian couple," Verrier says.

"They wanted to confirm an Olympics booking and then the rest of the bookings snowballed from there.

"We were working out what we would do for the Games but it was our clientele that showed the interest and got in first.

"It has been really quite extraordinary."

The chief executive of the British Hospitality Association, Bob Cotton, says more than one-third of London's 135,000 hotel rooms have already been taken. The IOC has booked 35,000 rooms, while corporate sponsors have secured an additional 20,000.

"But they are in the branded hotels and I can't imagine the regular Olympic visitor wanting to stay at a five-star hotel," Cotton says.

"We are seeing new budget hotels opening in London at a rate of 20 to 25 a year, so that means an additional 3000 rooms per year."

Cotton says with the dramatic drop in London hotel bookings in recent months - about 30 per cent lower than normal - now might be the ideal time to snare a bargain for the Olympics.

"As the forward position looks a bit weak, it might be possible to get a good price now," he says. "And we have a good practice charter in place, which recommends hotels do not jack up rates for the short term of the Games.

"So if a room is around £75 ($177) now, I don't think anyone should be paying more than £90 in four years' time."

The Amsterdam Hotel's Verrier says 2012 rates will be calculated by averaging year-on-year increases for recent years and then multiplying that amount by four.

Hotel rooms can be booked now but it will require patience to complete a 2012 London Olympics itinerary.

Airfares can only be booked 12 months before travel, so the earliest that plane tickets to London can be secured will be July 2011.

The 7.7 million tickets to the Games' events will go on sale in early 2011.

Considering the number of Australians who were caught in the Beijing ticket scam, there is certain to be closer scrutiny of tickets by authorised agencies.

Judy Watkins, of the VisitBritain tourist agency, says when London's winning bid for the Games was announced in 2005, marketing reports predicted Australians would be among the highest number of international visitors in 2012. In 2007, 941,000 Australians visited Britain.

Watkins says the level of early interest in the Olympics by Australians does not surprise her.

"People who went to Sydney 2000 want to have that experience again and to do so in London really appeals," she says, but warns enthusiastic Olympic visitors to be cautious when making bookings.

"Deal with hotels you know or that have been recommended and deal with the hotels directly," she says. "Put everything in writing and make sure the confirmations come through for dates, prices and what it is you are getting in your booking.

"Otherwise, go through a travel agent with good London contacts, as then your booking has a travel agency guarantee if anything should go wrong."

Checking a hotel's location for direct tube links to Olympic Park in London's Stratford is essential, says Verrier.

"Visitors must ensure their hotel is close to transport," Verrier says.

"People need to find all this out now, so when it comes Games time, they just arrive to have a good time."

BOOKING ESSENTIALS

* Check hotel location for tube links to Olympic Park.

* Confirm hotel rates, dates and all cancellation policies in writing and with a booking number.

* Deal directly with hotels and only with ones that are recommended. Otherwise consult a travel agent.

* Be prepared to bid for Games tickets in three years' time.

* Make a diary note to book airfares to London in July 2011.

* See www.visitbritain.org.

Sydney Morning Herald